>To be strictly accurate Genesis 2:10
>describes not a confluence but a splitting of the rivers into four.
>Josephus surely believed it meant a split not a conjoining.
We call the wide end of a river the "mouth," apparently they preferred
the word "head." The head is the big end of the body, the end of the
river that empties into the sea or another river is the biggest end. It
makes just as much sense to me to call the terminal end of a river a
"head" as it does a "mouth."
>I would prefer a situation where the names are re-given to other
>rivers as is often done. There is a Carrollton, Texas and one in Georgia.
>There is a Paris in France and one in Texas.
Hold on. There are thousands of towns. How many rivers do you know that
are named the same in this or any other country? Further to that, all
the towns named in the first eleven chapters of Genesis are in Southern
Mesopotamia too. Where is Assyria? Look at a map.
>I would identify the Gihon as the Nile.
The Nile is on another continent. How could it be connected with the
garden of Eden as stated in Genesis 2:10? This is like talking about
St. Louis and identifying one of the nearby rivers as the Amazon.
>My claim is that the Tigris and Euphrates formerly spilled into the
>Mediteranean/Tethys basin as the local geology would require.
This is just more speculation.
>The Pishon, as I mentioned earlier is anybody's guess.
Could even have been an irrigation canal. One of the "rivers" in Babylon
is an irrigation canal named the "Chebar" (Eze. 1:1).
>My Encylopedia Britannica states:
>"With the exception of oil, Iraq has modest mineral resources. They
>include iron ore, chromite, copper, lead, and zinc deposits in the north.
>Limestone, gypsum, phosphates, and sulfur are abundant." ("Iraq",
>Encyclopedia Britannica, 1982, Vol 9. p.877)
>
>In SW Iraq, where you say this was, the rock types are wrong for gold.
>Gold is most often found in association with igneous rocks. There are
>none in SW Iraq.
Southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) was suitable for growing grain,
primarily barley, which they bartered for gold and pretty rocks. Trade
routes in that area date to at least 3500 BC. From MacMillan Bible Atlas:
From earliest times commercial caravans plied the major
highways carrying their products, precious objects, and
luxuries ...
Glenn, I'll give you this. For an apologetic that has nothing going for
it you do manage to make a reasonable sounding case for it. Space does
not permit me to plow everything I know about the Mesopotamian
surroundings of all of Genesis 1-11 that concerns man. I couldn't even
get it all into my book. But, I suppose if we keep at this long enough
eventually it may all come out, who knows?
Still your friend,
Dick Fischer
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